Canadian scientists Frederick Banting (right) and Charles
Best.
On January 11, 1922, 14-year-old Leonard Thompson becomes
the first person to receive an injection of the hormone insulin
for Type-1 diabetes—a disease that for millennia had been
considered a death sentence for anyone who developed it.
Thompson’s blood sugar levels stabilized and he suffered
no ill side effects. He became the face of a new wonder drug.
The breakthrough research behind insulin came at the
University of Toronto in the summer of 1921, when
Canadians Frederick Banting and Charles Best
successfully isolated insulin from canine test
subjects,
The breakthrough would be one of the most consequential
in medical history, saving millions of lives.
Laboratory on the University of Toronto campus where
Banting and Best carried out some of their research on
insulin.
